Killer Instinct 2

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Killer Instinct 2

Information

Release date

1996 November 25, 1996 (Nintendo 64) September 23, 2014 (Xbox One)

Developers

Rare Ltd.

Publisher(s)

Nintendo Midway (Arcade Manufacturer)

Designer(s)

Chris Tilston Kevin Bayliss Mark Betteridge

Composer(s)

Robin Beanland

Platform(s)

Arcade (KI Gold only)

Distribution

Arcade: ROM & HDD Nintendo 64: Cartridge Xbox One: Digital download

Killer Instinct 2 (commonly abbreviated as KI2) is a 1996 arcade fighting game, and the sequel from Killer Instinct (1994). Like its predecessor, the game features two 8-way joysticks with six buttons each for attacks (three punch and three kick), allowing for both a single player mode or a two player versus mode. KI2 was ported to the Nintendo 64, formerly known as Killer Instinct Gold, in 1996.

Contents

Overview

As with most fighting games and indeed its predecessor, two characters square off with the goal of depleting the opponent's life bar. As with the original Killer Instinct, when a player's original life bar is fully depleted, he or she will fall to the ground, and immediately begin on his or her second lifebar.

As with the first game, Killer Instinct 2 relies on an automatic combo subsystem in its matches. The matches, as with Killer Instinct, revolve around a three strength system (Quick, Medium, and Fierce.) However, normal moves have lost a lot of their priority and range, as well as gaining extra recovery time. Throws have been added into the game to deal with blocking characters (as opposed to the top attack in Killer Instinct.) Additionally, characters can be knocked down much easier with normal moves than in the first game, ending the possibility of opening with a 'glitch' combo and also weakening the effectiveness of normal moves. Normal special moves no longer are judged on priority, but instead follow a three tiered 'rock, paper, scissors' system, in which a certain special move will always break another certain special move (similar to the three tiered system in Soul Calibur.) The system has been seen as flawed due to little differences between the special moves themselves.

Additionally, a Super bar has been added to the game (similar to Street Fighter Alpha or King of Fighters). This super bar fills as players take damage. After the bar reaches a certain point, the player can use a multi-hit super special move (normally referred to as Super Move,) which is usually an extended version of a normal special move.

The combo system has its roots in the original Killer Instinct. By pressing a certain strength button after an opener move, a player will launch an auto-double and initiate the combo system of the game. However, unlike the first game, players can now open up combos with new and much less risky moves than before (most notable a close Fierce punch or close Fierce kick.) Additionally, Super Moves can be placed into combos, greatly increasing their damage and potency as well as being unbreakable. Additionally combos can be extended using throws, super linkers, manual-doubles, and super end specials.

As a result of the weakened normal moves and other changes to the system, combos have now become more devastating in Killer Instinct 2. In an apparent effort to help ease this dominance, combo breakers are now easier to perform. Unlike combo breakers in the first game, which also required a three tiered 'rock, paper, scissors' system based on strength to break, combos are now broken depending on the type of attack. Punches break kick doubles, and kicks will break punch doubles.

As popular as its predecessor was this next installment, in addition to praise, was criticized for its more liberal combo engine which changed the dynamics of the game considerably.

Parry, an advanced new addition, allow an open counter-attack after a successful parry block. A player can assume a standing defensive position and cause the attacker to temporarily freeze if the parry is successful.

The finishing moves have also been reworked. Now each character can only execute these attacks when the opponent's second life bar flashes red (unlike the first Killer Instinct the opponents falls when he or she loses all of his or her energy bars). Each characters has two Ultimate combo moves (one of them can be executed without executing a combo), the Humiliation sequences were dropped, and the Ultra combo feature is still intact.

Endings

Each character in the game has two or four different endings. Which ending the player gets depends whether or not the player kills (by using a finishing move vs. simply depleting their health) one or more certain character(s) during the course of the game.

For example, Jago's endings both involve Fulgore and Orchid. Thus, killing or not killing them over the course of the game alters the outcomes of his endings.

If he kills both of them, he relishes his victory over Fulgore, but feels an inexplicable emptiness in his heart.

If he kills Orchid but doesn't destroy Fulgore, the cyborg will eventually make a lethal attack on him after he wins the tournament, and fulfills Ultratech's original purposes by seizing control of the world.

If he kills Fulgore but spares Orchid, his enjoyment of his enemy's demises is only sweetened by the discovery that Orchid is his older sister.

If he spares both their lives, he makes that discovery when she saves him from Fulgore's attack.

Story

Killer Instinct 2 follows on from the plot line that the previous installment ended with. Eyedol's death at the hands of Orchid accidentally sets off a time warp, transporting some of the combatants back in time and allowing the Demon Lord Gargos to escape from Limbo. Now, trapped 2000 years in the past, the warriors that survived Killer Instinct, along with several new faces, fight for the right to face Gargos in combat, but Chief Thunder, Cinder and Riptor did not return. Each character that survived the journey from the first game has a corresponding background story, while new characters on this installment are native inhabitants of this past time period. Some fighters, like T.J. Combo who survives from the original, just want to get home. Others, like new character Tusk, want to bring an end to Gargos and his reign of evil. This time there is no tournament or prize money, just a fight to the finish with the fate of the future hanging in the balance.

Characters

Characters returning from the first game

Black Orchid destroyed Eyedol in the first tournament which subsequently sent the Ultratech building two millennia into the past. Now Orchid seeks to destroy Gargos and to find a way home.

Fulgore is a new, enhanced cyborg created after the first version of Fulgore was destroyed by Jago, in the first tournament. His current goal is to kill Jago.

The original Glacius defeated Cinder and returned home. A distant relative of Glacius 2,000 years in the past heeds a distress call and comes to Earth. His goal is to find his lost brethren and return home.

Jago succeeded in destroying Fulgore in the first tournament, after being possessed by the Tiger Spirit. He was soon betrayed by the Tiger Spirit which turned out to be the demon Gargos in disguise. Gargos used Jago to gain entrance to the physical world. Jago seeks revenge against Gargos's manipulation. It is revealed in this game that Orchid is his sister.

Sabrewulf was captured by Ultratech in the first tournament, after being severely injured and beaten. He has been driven mad by experimentations from Ultratech. With cybernetic arms and being 2,000 years in the past, Sabrewulf desperately seeks a cure for his lycanthropy.

Spinal was destroyed by Chief Thunder in the first tournament. Gargos however had one of his own in the past. Spinal now fights for vengeance and for his freedom.

TJ Combo, after he defeated Riptor in the first tournament, was sent into the past when attempting to destroy the Ultratech building. Now he simply fights to get home.

New characters

Gargos is the demon lord that has returned to the world after Eyedol's destruction in the first Killer Instinct tournament. Resembles a huge gargoyle that is very powerful and can also breathe fire. He was the rival of Eyedol, the boss of the first game.

Kim Wu is an eastern martial artist who is a descendent of the heroes who long ago banished Eyedol and Gargos from the world. To protect her people and fulfill the destiny of her bloodline, she seeks to destroy Gargos forever.

Maya is an Amazonian queen and one of the original heroes who were responsible for banishing Eyedol and Gargos. Exiled by her people after Gargos reappeared, her goal is to destroy the demon lord once and for all and regain her standing.

Tusk is a legendary barbarian and the warrior champion of the ancient world. Undefeated in his own time, he now comes to strike down all the other challengers in the belief that it will earn him a hero's right to face Gargos.

Versions

Arcade

Killer Instinct Gold

Killer Instinct Gold is the Nintendo 64 port of Killer Instinct 2. It was released shortly after the launch of the console. The game suffered some major graphical downgrades (most of its FMV scenes and several frames of character animation were completely removed, sprites' animation quality was decreased) due to the hardware limitations of the Nintendo 64 cartridge. The FMVs had to be replaced with a simple animation consisting of a zoom of the character the player were using. To compensate the loss of animations, stages in the game were fully rendered in 3D, as opposed to the scaling and distorting FMVs used for the stage backgrounds in the arcade version, allowing a more dynamic camera when starting a fight, while using less memory consumption.
However, Killer Instinct Gold remains faithful to the original Killer Instinct 2.

These differences include:

Team Battles, in which one can fight with up to 11 characters.

Team Elimination Battles, in which one has to finish his or her opponents off with Fatals (finishing moves similar to Mortal Kombat's Fatalities, which can be executed immediately) instead of simply depleting their life bar with normal moves, or they will simply return later on in the match (however as the computer player will sometimes use Gargos as the last opponent, victims can be removed from play anyway as he lacks a finishing move).

Training and Advanced Training, in which the player can learn the moves of the character they have chosen as well as the correct execution of combos, doubles, auto-doubles link moves, etc.

Options menu, which allows the player to modify certain data, such as the speed of the game, the color of the blood, button configuration, sound and manage Controller Pak data.

Unlockable content, such as alternate colors for characters and scenarios, and faster degrees of speed for the game.

KI Gold is compatible with the Nintendo 64's Controller Pak to save options and high scores, though the cartridge also includes battery save.

Later Re-Release

On August 4, 2015, KI Gold was later included in an Xbox One exclusive (and worldwide-released) complication of 30 of the original developer Rare's titles called "Rare Replay", complete with emulated graphics and gameplay, exclusive features, unlockables, and new Gamerscore Achievements.

Merchandise

Killer Instinct Gold Cuts is the original soundtrack based on Killer Instinct Gold. It consisted in a 16-track-audio-CD, which included original tracks from the Arcade versions plus two remixes and the Training Mode track.